Sir Ken Robinson

But if you ask people about their education, they pin you to the wall.

Because it's one of those things that goes deep with people.

Am I right?

Like religion and money.

and other things.

So, I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do.

We have a huge vested interest in it, partly because it's education that's meant to take us into this future that we can't grasp.

If you think of it, children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065.

Nobody has a clue what the world will look like in five years' time.

And yet we're meant to be educating them for it.

So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.

And the third part of this is that we've all agreed, nonetheless, on the really extraordinary capacities that children have, their capacities for innovation.

I mean, Serena last night was a marvel, wasn't she?

Just seeing what she could do.

And she's exceptional, but I think she's not, so to speak,

exceptional in the whole of childhood.

What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication who found a talent.

And my contention is all kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them pretty ruthlessly.

So I want to talk about education, and I want to talk about creativity.

My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.